He may not be general manager material but Pierre Gauthier is still a pretty good judge of hockey talent. The Chicago Blackhawks have hired him as Director of Player Personnel. In that department, he replaces Marc Bergevin who replaced him as Canadens General Manager two months after he was fired.
The firing of Jacques Martin led to the firing of Pierre Gauthier. It just took a while. Max Pacioretty’s scoring drought is hard to explain. And the Canadiens faced with perhaps one option when it comes to the disposal of the Scott Gomez contract. Conversation for a Canadiens day off.
The Canadiens fired general manager Pierre Gauthier Thursday, just over a week before the worst season in over seventy years comes to an end. While there have been criticiisms of Gauthier’s management style, one thing led that eventually sealed his doom – a league leading rash of injuries to veteran players.
If you go by the Montreal media, Pierre Gauthier is a goner. He won’t be returning for another season as Canadiens general manager, and if we’re to believe them, the next general manager of the team will be Patrick Roy. Just what the Canadiens need, another five year rebuilding programme. Maybe it’s time to take a close look at what the chaos of the last seventeen years has cost the Canadiens.
At season’s end Carey Price will probably win the Molson Cup as the Canadiens most valuable player but the player who has had the greatest impact has been Erik Cole. Cole heads into the All-Star break as the team leader in goals, points and plus/minus rating. At a cap hit of 4.5 million dollars over four years, Cole is the free agent bargain of the year..
Questions and answers on an off day for the Canadiens – Is P.K. Subban a serial “slew footer”? Andrei Kostitsyn’s future in Montreal, if any. The size and length of Carey Price’s next contract? the next coach of the Canadiens. and Michael Cammalleri leaves Montreal under a undeserved cloud. Read all about it.
When a team has trouble putting back to back wins together, cannot protect third period leads and is bouncing in and out of contention for a playoff berth, it is a lead-pipe cinch the coach is going to be fired. Today, the Canadiens fired coach jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth. Curnneyworth will be behind the Canadiens bench when the Canadiens host the New Jersey Devils in their final home game of 2011.
The Canadiens announced at 6.00pm Wednesday that assistant coach Perry Pearn has been dismissed. Pearn is the second assistant to leave the team since the end of last season . During the summer, Kirk Muller left the team to take a head coaching opportunity with the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League.
The Canadiens are off to their worst start in history and the cry on the streets is “fire Jacques Martin!” It’s not going to happen, certainly not at this early stage of the season. What is happening to the Canadiens is a repeat of the early season struggles of the Buffalo Sabres and their head coach Lindy Ruff last season.
The Team 990 reported Monday night that Andrei Markov and the Canadiens have reached agreement on a two-year 11.5 million dollar contract. Markov’s agent Don Meehan subsequently denied the deal will be completed until he meet with Canadiens generall manager Pierre Gauthier this weekend at the NHL draft meetings in Minnesota. Even without the Markov signing, the Canadiens find themselves in excellant shape as they approach July first free-agency.
